


You Don't Know What Love Is

by Lucky107



Series: Sailor Beware [6]
Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-01
Updated: 2016-08-01
Packaged: 2018-07-28 18:44:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7652581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lucky107/pseuds/Lucky107
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Despite being sixty years old, Shaun is the spitting image of his father.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Don't Know What Love Is

**Author's Note:**

> You Don't Know What Love Is - Chet Baker - 1955

"Ah, Aunt Reno..." Shaun greets, gesturing for the young woman to come and sit on the bedside with him.  Laid up in bed like this, he shows his age— _vulnerability_ —that very few in the Institute have ever seen.  "If you don't mind, I would like to go over some things from the Directorate meeting this morning."

Standing in the doorway, Reno says, "Of course."

She moves slowly, almost carefully, as if she's testing the water when she sits down on the bedside.  Shaun takes her hand, his own frail and trembling.

"I know there has been a lot for you to take in recently," he begins.  "And I hope it wasn't presumptuous of me to elect you as the next Director without first speaking to you—"

"No, of course not."

The surprise in his blue eye— _his father's eyes_ —softens into a sad smile.  "Irregardless of your short time here, I do believe that you are the best chance the Institute has for long-term survival."  Despite being sixty years old, Shaun is the spitting image of his father when he looks at Reno with that pleading expression and she knows she's powerless against him.

But he's terrified.

Not of what's to come for the Institute, but of what's to come for _them_.  Reno has only just begun to make her transition into a life with the Institute and Shaun has only just begun to understand the true strength of her love.

Gesturing for him to lean into her, Reno shoulders Shaun's weight against her as if she had been there for him his entire life - as if he weren't raised all alone in a laboratory.  He spent a lifetime wondering what kind of person she was, but never once did those wonders come close to the real thing.

She places a warm kiss on his cold forehead and whisper quietly, "Shh..."

That's when it starts, he thinks, but he doesn't know and he can't keep track of just how long he cries into Reno's shoulder - loud and obnoxious and so glad to be alone, if even just for a little while.  He allows himself to fall apart in front of Reno because she's not just the only person he's ever trusted, but the only person he's ever _loved_.

She runs her fingers through his once-blonde hair and there they sit for as long as it takes to come to terms with their startling reality; bad things still happen in a perfect world.

For the first time since her arrival, Shaun wonders if inviting Reno to the Institute was a mistake.


End file.
